Skills
This page is meant to be a resource for character building. It will help you to determine your skills based on the level you set them at or level to. The current rank cap for skills is +5, but it's possible reaching God Tier will raise this--that is, however, unconfirmed. For now go ahead and assume that +5 is as high as your skills are likely to reach. | style="vertical-align: top; width: 400px;" | |} Aspect Your Aspect skill (the name of this skill will differ depending on your Mythological Role--Blood, Breath, Doom, Heart, Hope, Life, Light, Mind, Rage, Space, Time, or Void) is the skill you use when invoking your powers as a Hero of SBURB. The actual powers of this skill don't only vary from aspect to aspect, but might also vary from class to class--a Seer of Light might be able to invoke Light for the purposes of divination, but a Witch of Light might not. It all depends, and much of it is going to come down to asking the GMs "Can I do THIS?" and the GMs saying "You can try!" If you're a Hero, one of your skills will have to be your Aspect skill. Pre-scratch this was always one of your +1 (Average) skills. Post-scratch, we don't know yet. You can't take Aspect skills you don't start with (at least not in any way we're aware of), but when you reach milestones you can level up your Aspect skill like any other skill. For Pages, the Aspect skill is useless until they god tier, at least in all instances we've seen in-game. This does not mean it's not worth leveling though, it just isn't a priority until you're ready to god tier. : Athletics Athletics stands for your character's agility. It will determine your ability when running, dodging, climbing, etc. : : Burglary : Burglary describes your rogue-like capabilities like lock-picking, trap avoidance, sleight of hand, and of course stealing. : : Computers : Computers is used for hacking, programming, using the alchemiter and other such machines, and robotics. : : : Crafts The ability to make or repair objects, including both machinery and artifacts. House Rule Note: While the SRD says Crafts is more about machinery, the way we've been using it, Crafts covers both machinery and art objects such as wood carving or painting and the like. MC: Crafts is also used to great effect for ALCHEMIZATIONS. : : Deceive The ability to pass off fiction as truth, through lying, acting, or disguise. It might also be used for things like combat feints and traps. : : Drive Used for maneuvering vehicles. Despite the land-based name, it also includes piloting. Obviously most kids under 15 wouldn't have any experience driving, so generally characters won't begin with this skill without some sort of justification. : : Empathy Used for getting inside the mental state of another living creature. Can be used to determine emotions or moods, to detect lies, and can even be used to figure out the names of another character's Aspects if they're about that character's psychology. Often used when defending against Deceive checks. : : Investigate Used for systematic, focused perception of little details, and research. Investigate is one of the go-to skills for gathering information in general. Investigation generally takes a decent amount of time, and can't really be used when you're distracted. : : Lore Lore represents your body of knowledge and level of education. It can be used when your knowledge is key, such as on checks to perform First Aid, recognize obscure details that might be relevant to your current situation, decipher languages, : : Notice Notice is like the quick and dirty equivalent of Investigate. Notice is all about your perception, and doing quick scans of your surroundings. When someone's trying to sneak up on you, Notice will be your defense against that. When some little, useful object is around that you might be able to make use of, Notice will let you spot it. : : Physique Physique is your strength and your endurance. A character with high skills in Athletics could run a 50 meter dash, whereas a character with high Physique could run a marathon. Physique also gives you additional Physical Stress boxes at higher levels. You get a third Physical Stress box at +1 or +2 stress, and a fourth at +3 or +4 stress. : : Rapport Rapport is about communicating your emotions and winning people over to your way of thinking. It's great for negotiation, debates, charm, and seduction. Rapport can also represent performances or art when the goal is to communicate or impress. : : : Shipping Shipping is a custom skill unique to World of Homestuck. It allows you to create Ships involving two characters, which become Aspects that remain on the effected characters, and are compellable like any other aspect. : : Stealth The ability to become or remain undetected. Pretty straight forward, you just hide, or move silently, or mask your presence in some other way. If a character's Notice check can't beat your Stealth roll, you're generally undetected. : : Strife Strife is the catch-all physical fighting skill. You use Strife mostly just for trying to smash, cut, skewer, or shoot things with items in your Strife Specibus. : : Trolling Trolling represents the ability to provoke or intimidate other creatures. It can be used to deal Mental Stress directly, or it can be used to alter another character's behavior with Advantages placed on them related to fear or anger or manipulation. There's some overlap with Rapport in the category of manipulation, but think of it this way--Rapport is about getting someone to do something through positive reinforcement. Trolling is about doing so through negative reinforcement. A character affected by your trolling is not likely going to like you afterward, whereas a person you manipulate with Rapport is likely to consider you a friend. : : Will Will is a character's cleverness, determination and focus. It increases your mental fortitude, and also allows you to create advantages on yourself related to concentration or morale, and is also used to resist attempts to manipulate or psychically influence you. A character with high Will and low Lore would represent someone who's clever but uneducated. : :